


Everything Went Numb

by F1nch



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Drabble, Gen, I'm sad so the characters are too, spoilers for Episode 28
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-02
Updated: 2019-06-02
Packaged: 2020-04-06 16:29:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 475
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19066357
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/F1nch/pseuds/F1nch
Summary: When Mama closed her eyes, she saw herself and Thacker, beside the body of the latest teammate they had lost. When she opened them, it was her and Aubrey.





	Everything Went Numb

**Author's Note:**

> AKA, the worst circumstance for mother-daughter bonding.  
> Major spoilers for Episode 28.  
> Unbetaed. Apologies for errors.

 

“He’s gone.”

Those were the only words Aubrey had spoken in the last hour. Her hollow eyes stared out at the body before her, tears reflecting the shimmering of stars above. 

She sat on her knees, as still as the man she mourned.

Mama stayed at her side. As chaos reigned around them, she stayed.

In some ways, it was like looking in a mirror. Or, like looking in a mirror, many, many years ago.

Years ago, it would’ve been Thacker, staying at her side, holding her hand as she stared over the body of the comrade they’d lost that day. The first few times, she could never understand just how nonchalant he would be about the whole situation. A friend was gone. They’d been there, and now they weren’t anymore. 

The Pine Guard would hold a funeral, and then be on with their lives. It wasn’t that they didn’t care, but that they had to not care. It couldn’t hinder them.

Mama had always noted how Thacker would never look at the body. Not unless he had to.

She blinked, realizing the patch of grass that had captured her attention.

She had grown used to it. In Thacker’s absence, she had become the leader. The comforter.

She was used to death. She had seen it countless times. Spent hours trying to wash its scent from her clothes. 

Aubrey had never seen this before. She had never seen a friend growing cold, out here in the grass. 

Mama’s instincts told her to help the girl up, get her back to the lodge. It was the most sensible. Not sense to stay out here and risk catching a cold.

But the image wouldn’t leave. The image of the faces, staring back at her in the mirror. The image of her, kneeled beside the body of Mike or Weasel or whoever they had lost that day. Thacker at her side.

No sense in ignoring death. It was the one thing in life that was permanent. No matter how hard they fought, those they had lost weren’t coming back.

Aubrey didn’t know that. She didn’t understand. Her hands kept lighting up, bathing in that orange glow. For a moment, the light washed the stillness and gloom from Ned’s face. But, as soon as the light was gone, so was he.

She was a child. A child Mama had enlisted in this fight out of desperation. A child who was witnessing death because of it.

The symbol of the Pine Guard was one entwined with death and loss. The patch woven with the souls who had worn them before. The legion that another had now joined.

But the Pine Guard, too, was a family. In that moment, monsters and aliens and gates didn’t matter. All that mattered was that Mama’s daughter was weeping, and that she needed her mother.


End file.
